Barn Owl
This bird is often the favourite Owl of the people who visit us. It has
beautiful markings once adult, but the young start off as ugly little birds,
resembling I'm sure, tiny dinosaurs, they soon grow and develop a plumage
designed for camouflage.
These Owls do not have the same variety of food items that the Tawny's have.
These birds almost completely live on a diet of small mammals, with the odd
bird, bat and beetle thrown in.
They are hunters of the open fields and grasslands, and todays intensive
farming methods have meant a great loss of habitat. Farmers can leave strips
of land alongside hedgerows, river banks, etc., where small mammals can live
and breed, thus making life easier for the Barn Owl, and there are grants
available to do this, also what is good habitat for small mammals is also
good habitat for all other types of wildlife from insects, to birds and larger
predators.
With enough strips stretching across the country, Barn Owls could spread back
into areas where they have since disappeared.
It is not true that Barn Owls have disappeared because our barns are being
turned into houses, but it is true that many of their original nesting sites
have disappeared. Barn Owls will happily nest in boxes, in holes in rotten
trees, and in holes in rock faces, they do not need barns, but they do need
nest sites.